Some 800,000 people – Tutsis and moderate Hutus – are estimated to have been killed.

Donor countries, which support the Rwandan government, have been very critical of the move to change the constitution.

The US urged Mr Kagame to step down in 2017, saying he had “an opportunity to set an example for a region in which leaders seem too tempted to view themselves as indispensable to their own countries’ trajectories”.

The president has hit back at “other nations” for interfering in Rwanda’s internal affairs.

But the issue of African presidents seeking a third term in office has caused unrest elsewhere on the continent.

Violence has engulfed neighbouring Burundi since President Pierre Nkurunziza announced in April his plans to seek a third term, in violation of a peace accord that brought an end to the country’s brutal 12-year ethnic civil war.

And in September, there were major protests in the Republic of Congo as President Denis Sassou Nguesso called a referendum to approve constitutional changesallowing him to stand for a third term.